Archive for August, 2008

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Roast Beef Panini

Technorati: Food | photo | kevin d weeks | seriously good | sandwich | panini

Making the Best of a Cheap Roast

This is an article I’ve been wanting to publish for a few years. But it’s huge for something posted on the Web so bear with me.

Pause for a moment and look at the photo above. Notice that the meat is a perfect reddish-pink (medium rare) from the center all the way to the edges. Unlike most roasts it isn’t grayer (more well done) towards the outside. It is perfectly cooked from edge to center. What you can’t see in that photo is that it also has a deeply-browned, flavorful crust. You also can’t see that it cost me $3.99 a pound at the grocers.

If you’re a beef eater there is little to beat the flavor of a prime rib roast.

If you’re a beef eater there is little to beat the flavor of a prime rib roast. The best rib roasts are prime-grade beef and are dry-aged for 20 or more days. The best roasts are well-marbled with fat, juicy, fork-tender, and packed with beef flavor. But at $25 – $30 a pound, bone-in, this is not an everyday meal. You may be able to find a choice-grade rib roast, un-aged, for as little as $10 – $12 a pound. Still not cheap and certainly not as good with poor marbling, less juice, requiring a knife to cut, and a bit bland. Turn to a cheap supermarket roast like rump or bottom round and the eating experience is far poorer – hardly worth while. Such low-end roasts tend to be both bland and tough however they’re cooked.

But there are two tricks you can employ on a cheap rump or bottom roast to drastically improve the experience: aging and slow-roasting.
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I came home the other day with a bottle of grappa. If you’re unfamiliar with it, grappa is a sort of clear Italian brandy made from the grape skins and pulp left over after making wine. Until recently it was thought of as a peasant drink, but it was “discovered” by someone – probably a marketer – and rapidly went upscale. I had my first taste on an Air Italia flight to Rome and quickly acquired a liking. It tends to be harsh, but the better grappas offer subtle complexities. I’ve found I like it better than brandy.

You can read the complete article at Spot-On.

Technorati: Food | essay | kevin d weeks | spot-on | booze | wine

Technorati: Food | photo | kevin d weeks | seriously good | figs

Magical Sandwich

For the most part I’m a fairly laid-back guy — calm and collected with a light Southern drawl (actually, an Appalachian mountain drawl). Not real excitable. At both meetings and parties I spend more time observing than talking. And so it sometimes surprises people when I get off on one of my passions, because I do have passions.

I can rant for hours on software quality and the value of proper software testing. The same when it comes to software design. And don’t get me started on the importance of editors for producing quality written work — this blog really suffers from not having a second pair of eyes approve each post before it goes online.

My friend, Kitchen Mage, calls me “Pig, Sandwich Boy,” reflecting my passion for pork, sandwiches, and pork sandwiches.

I have culinary passions too. My friend, Kitchen Mage, calls me “Pig, Sandwich Boy,” reflecting my passion for pork, sandwiches, and pork sandwiches. Get me started on a food passion and I’ll go a mile-a-minute, my words spilling over each other like ping-pong balls cascading down a stair-well. Witness this podcast on NPR.

One would think that having just completed an article on sandwiches that I’d be sandwiched out, but in fact I was inspired to come up with something new. So I bought a pork sirloin roast.
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I‘ve been wanting to see King Corn since it was released last year, but there wasn’t a chance it would appear in a theatre here in Knoxville and I missed the PBS broadcast here so I had to wait for the DVD release of this documentary about the current state of the American agricultural business. This past week I finally had my chance to view it and my reaction was, “Not bad, pretty good in fact.”

You can read the complete article at Spot-On.

Technorati: Food | review | kevin d weeks | spot-on | king corn